School sanitation is still the pits
Pupils and teachers at 1,661 schools in five provinces still suffer the indignity of having to use pit toilets, almost three decades after the advent of democracy in SA.
South Africans were outraged when Michael Komape, 5, from Mahlodumela Primary in Limpopo, and Lumka Mkethwa, 5, from Luna Primary in the Eastern Cape, drowned after falling into pit toilets in January 2014 and March 2018, respectively.
That prompted the launch of the Sanitation Appropriate for Education initiative in August 2018 to accelerate the provision of proper sanitation facilities in schools. A total of 811 institutions in the Eastern Cape, 557 in KwaZulu-Natal and 286 in Limpopo still have pit latrines, according to the department of basic education.
There are no such toilets at schools in Gauteng or the Western Cape, while the plain pit latrines at five schools in the Northern Cape are no longer in use.
In her department’s annual performance plan, which was discussed in parliament this week, basic education minister Angie Motshekga said national and provincial education departments “are making strides in efforts to replace pit latrines with appropriate sanitation facilities”.
Sihle Mlotshwa, a spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal education department, said flushing toilets at all 557 schools still using pit latrines were targeted for completion by March next year.
“A total of 440 projects are [at] the construction stage and 108 are at the concept stage,” he said, adding that construction of sanitation facilities at the remaining nine schools had been completed.
Northern Cape education spokesperson Geoffrey van der Merwe said alternative sanitation such as VIP toilets, Enviro Loos or flush toilets were provided at the five schools that had pit latrines.
Limpopo education department spokesperson Tidimalo Chuene said they were expecting to totally eradicate pit latrine toilets by the end of March 2024.
North West education department spokesman, Elias Malindi, said they did not have pit latrine toilets.
“We have built flushing toilets in all schools and were busy demolishing all the old pit latrines.”